U.S. Antarctic Resource Center Example

The United States Antarctic Resource Center (USARC) is a joint effort of the USGS National Mapping Division and the National Science Foundation United States Antarctic Program. Download digital elevation models of places in the Antarctic from their website https://usarc.usgs.gov.

Data Credit: USARC

Here is an example of the Beacon and Arena valleys located near McMurdo Sound.

1.) Go to USARC and download and unzip the data for Beacon and Arena.

2.) Merge the two DEMs.

gdal_merge.py -n -9999 -a_nodata -9999 beacon/beacon_atm_2001_dem_v5.tif arena/arena_atm_2001_dem_v5.tif -o dem.tif

3.) Create a landscape with LayerFactory.

layerfactory -type=elevation -file=dem.tif -landscape=Antarctica -tilesize=128 -missing=-9999

4.) View Antarctica in DERT.

5.) Open the lighting view and set the light to Solar to see the lighting at the South Pole.

6.) Add an Elevation Map Layer to the landscape.